I'd like to invite you to please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. We are in the midst of a brief series on the subject of worship. Normally this year we've been going through the book of Luke. And we're taking this little break. And part of it is we as elders think it's very important that the congregation understands and appreciates what we're doing in worship. I'm going to read Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 18. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Now, as we began this series on worship, we first spoke about how the Bible teaches that everyone owes worship to God. Everyone deep down knows that God exists, Romans 1 says, and the condemnation of those who remain in rebellion against God is they do not give him thanks. And so, worship is to be God-centered. And that's also addressing another concern we have. Sometimes worship is presented almost as entertainment or something for the human audience. Our understanding of worship in the Bible is our primary audience is God. We want to do that which pleases Him. Our worship is to be a sacrifice of praise to Him. Yet it's also true that though we give to God in worship, we receive far more from God. Now, what we come to receive is not money, health, happiness, ease, all the things the world is after. Some people get that idea as well. What we come to receive is what we really need. Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The psalmist describes how he thirsts after God, he yearns after God. We are a spiritually needy people. We need to be filled. So as we come to worship God and give Him worship, He, through the means of grace, as the Word of God is read, and is expounded, is preached, as we pray to God, we sing His praises, we participate in the Lord's Supper, these are channels of grace to us, filling our own souls, filling our hearts with what we need most. And I hope that's how you've come here today. As hungry, thirsty people, and in worship, God fills us spiritually. We've also seen that worship is defined and regulated by the Scriptures. God tells us in the Bible how we're to worship Him. We just don't do whatever we feel like doing. God has given us instruction. We learn in the Old Testament, from the example of Nadab and Abihu, that when they offered strange fire that God had not prescribed, they died. And in the New Testament, you have in 1 Corinthians 11, with the Lord's Supper, which we're going to have today, that some people, when they did not approach the Lord's table properly, some in the early church in Corinth got sick and others died. So when Ryan said, read that thing in the front cover of the bulletin about who should partake of the Lord's Supper, it's not that you should be good enough, but that as you partake of the Lord's Supper, that you come in faith and love for Jesus Christ, which will be a wonderful conclusion to our service today. So worship is prescribed by the Word of God. And so the Bible teaches certain elements of worship. The reading of Scripture, preaching, prayer, the Lord's Supper, singing praise to God. And we want to include these in our worship because that's what He's told us He wants. We don't add to that. We don't subtract from that. Now we have freedom in some of the circumstances of our worship. Do you have communion in the middle of the service or the end of the service? We think it's good to have it every week. Some of you will take wine, some will take grape juice. There are matters of freedom and circumstances of worship, but the elements are very important. And today we're going to focus on that one element of worship that is the most controversial of all. We're going to talk about worshiping God in music. Now I'm sad that it is controversial because music itself has been designed by God to unite our hearts in worship and yet in this day and age people in churches divide. Some people leave a church because they don't like the music. Some people, some churches, they divide the congregation, and so they have, you know, an early service with the hymns for the people who love the hymns, tends to be the older crowd. And then the young crowd can have their kind of more contemporary service later, and so the congregation doesn't mix together. You'll notice we don't do that. We have a blended congregation, and we have kind of blended worship, if you will. We don't want music to divide us, but people feel very strongly. One person wrote, past generations have divided over doctrine, But in our day, we battle over worship style in many of our churches. And so the question today, well, does the Bible say anything about the kind of music we should have in worship? Does the Bible tell us what kind of music God likes? We all know what kind of music we like. And I think you'll be surprised how much the Bible does have to say about this. Music, first of all, is a gift of God. God created us with the capacity to make music. So what is music? And that could take a while. We have some musicians here who could enlighten us. Some have called music sound organized in time. A dictionary definition is the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession in combination to produce a composition having unity and continuity. Interestingly, the first musicians, it says in Genesis 4, Jubal was the father of all those who play the lyre in the heart. Now, Jubal was actually in the line of Cain. That doesn't mean all musicians are in the line of Cain. But it's something that also represents that everybody loves music, right? And that's just over the culture, just over a lifetime of, you know, first it was those little cassette walk men, right? And then the CD ones and then the iPods. But there's constant music. You go to the store and they study what kind of music will make you buy more stuff. at the mall in the Christmas season. And it's not random what they're doing there. Which shows some of the power of music. So music can be used to glorify God who loves to be praised in song. The psalmist says, I will praise the name of God with song and magnify Him with thanksgiving. It will please the Lord better than an ox or a young bull with horns and with hooves. But music can also be used in a secular, neutral way. Like in the Jane Austen movies, right? They didn't have TV and stereos and all. So what did they do? They played the piano for each other, the fortepiano, and listened to each other and sang. Something in us, we love music. And something I think is really important in the text I read at the beginning is there's kind of a contrast here. What is the world doing? They're getting drunk with wine, which is dissipation. What are we doing? We're filled with the Holy Spirit. And being filled with the Spirit produces certain songs in us. And in the world, when they get drunk, they sing too, but a very different song and a very different spirit. Under the Old Testament, music was an important part of worship. Israel would praise God corporately. Like a joyous occasion when they were delivered from Pharaoh in Exodus, Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord. They have a hymnal, 150 psalms, biggest book in the Bible. And in these psalms, there's a great variety. There are laments in time of trial, there are confessions, there are thanksgivings, there are psalms of praise to God. God appointed musicians to lead in worship from among the Levites. David was called the sweet singer of Israel. And they used instruments when they would worship God in song. In Psalm 150, He says, praise him with trumpet sound, praise him with harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with stringed instruments and pipe, praise him with loud cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Now, in the New Testament, music is also important. And it's interesting, in Romans 15, we're told that when Christ comes, And he brings the New Covenant message, the New Covenant message of Jew and Gentile together, being reconciled to one another through his blood and being reconciled to God. In Romans 15, he says, for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy in it, it is written, therefore, I give praise to you among the Gentiles and I will sing to your name. And he says, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. Praise the Lord, all you as Gentiles. Let all the peoples praise him. So as Christ has come with his magnificent accomplishment on the cross, of achieving redemption, a better deliverance than Moses did for Egypt, just as the people of God sang in praise to God after the deliverance and exodus, how much more should we sing? He leads us in singing. And the mystery that had been anticipated in the Old Testament, has been revealed. Last year, when we began Luke, about this time, we saw the song of Mary, the Magnificat, and Zacharias and the angels singing in praise to God in the incarnation. After the first Lord's Supper, when Jesus instituted, what did they do after they finished? They sang a hymn. That's just part of the routine. When Paul and Silas were in prison, they sang. In local congregations, we see in Ephesians and Colossians, part of their worship was to sing praise to God. Now, in the history of the church, music changed up into the Middle Ages, in which the music and worship became something where there would be a congregation watching the priests and the monks who would sing or chant in Latin, and the congregation would just watch that happening. Something wonderful that occurred with the Reformation is Luther brought back congregational singing, acknowledging the priesthood of all believers. That each of us in singing is offering a sacrifice of praise to God, where we sing in a language we understand, and not just being spectators, we are full participants in worship. Now, there's also going to be music in your future. The book of Revelation shows there's singing in heaven. And Revelation chapter 5 says, they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And one thing you might think about when you come to church is we're coming to rehearsal every week. And we will be singing praise to the Lamb for eternity into the future when we're in the presence of Christ. And I hope it's something in which you delight. Music is very powerful, and for that reason, music needs to be used very carefully in worship. Not all music is praise to God. In Amos 5, verse 23, the Lord declares to the prophet, take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your hearts. And Jesus spoke, quoting from the Old Testament about the Jews of his day, this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Music is a challenge in worship in the sense that you can know the words and know the tune and be singing along and not worshiping if your mind is not engaged and your heart is not engaged. Also, music without words, by the way, music without words is fine. But it's not worship, as I understand in the New Testament. The music that goes with the words, it enhances the words, but the content of the words of giving praise to God is what makes it worship. So that's why we don't take a five-minute break in the middle of the service and play some Mozart or something that might sound nice, might be perfectly appropriate if you want to get together on Saturday night and have a talent show. But worship music has content, not merely addressing the emotions, which the sound of the music can do, the tune can do, but also the words being truth. Now, some music is neutral, secular, in the sense that it would be fine if you want to listen to Jingle Bells at the mall or Frosty the Snowman at home. If you can stand it, that's your business, as far as I'm concerned. but it would not be appropriate in worship. There's not sound worshipful theology in that. There are some songs or so-called songs that even the content itself might be so non-Christian, speaking of the words especially, but we're free to enjoy a variety of music. And if you were to go on my iTunes account and you'd see jazz and classical and contemporary Christian and traditional Christian, you know, great variety of stuff. It all can be enjoyed in general as a gift of God. I even have, somebody gave me a gift of a Spurgeon rap, if you can imagine that. And there's this guy that's rapping Reform Theology, and I'm not going to try to do that in church, but I've listened to it, it's okay. Music is very powerful. Aristotle even said, music has the power to shape character. Because music stirs the emotions. And I've been trying to How do you see this? When do people in our culture actually experience music together? What's the most common place outside of church people experience music together? It's a sporting event, typically, right? And they play the national anthem. But you see what happens. People stand up, they put their hands on the heart, they take off their hat. And that music, by the way, the way it's written is to move you in a certain way. They don't sing rap songs for a national anthem or hip-hop or something. There's a majestic, you know, even at the Olympics, all the different national anthems, there's a majesty to those. Music has this powerful dynamic in a group to unite people together. Back to Ephesians 5.18, some people when they're drunk with wine, bar tunes in the past, and get happy. Some people at a party, I've been at wedding receptions and the DJ, you know, later in the reception he starts playing songs. I'm astonished that there are 50 people of a previous generation all singing all the words to these songs. I don't even know the songs. I don't know if the words were good or bad because I could not understand them. But they were all kind of united in culture and knowing these songs and relating to the beat, but also to the content of them and sharing some experience. Well, what we do as a congregation is unique. Even for an unbeliever coming in here, here you have 150 people in two different services, and some have thousands. But a group of people uniting their voice together around one theme, and one that lifts us above even our humanity, being filled with the Spirit. Singing praise to the God who has created us. And exalting Him while we build each other up in faith. It's amazing. And it has great good, it does for us. It enhances our worship. We could recite things, couldn't we? And there can be a case for just reciting Scripture or something like that. But the music itself enhances it. Luther saw the hymn as a means to let the Word of God dwell among God's people. And music is also a teaching aid. It's a memory aid. Give me a session. How do you teach a child the alphabet? A, B, C, right? I'm not going to keep going, but you teach them a song and they learn it. And people can learn scripture or biblical truth as they learn great hymns and psalms and it sticks with them. They retain it. Calvin loved singing the Psalms not only as a means of praise, but a technique for teaching the Word of God. And then, as I said, music unites us and gives us a sense that we're singing together. We're singing to one another as we sing to God and building each other up in faith. It strengthens our faith. It's this means of grace. Well, when is music worship? Bob Coughlin writes, music is worship when it is being offered by Christians intentionally to honor God, offered in faith for the finished work of Christ. Now, because music is so powerful, we need to be careful not to misuse this gift in worship. And music can become man-centered instead of God-centered. And it does it in a few different ways. One is, music has a great power to stir the emotions, regardless of the content of the words. To give you an illustration, I took Caroline, my wife, to see Big Hero 6. But you've got all these trailers beforehand. And it made me think the whole time of how music is used in film, right? And when there's something exciting and heroic, and usually during the trailer, they're playing a really exciting or triumphant part, and the music is reflecting that. And they're playing trailer after trailer. I'm thinking about this sermon. I'm thinking how music is used to bring out these different emotions. And you're feeling it, even though you're just getting these little 30-second snippets. Then this powerful wall of music came out of the speakers, the surround sound, and everything. And it was just like these other heroic exciting songs. But then they put on the screen it was a Christian pop band that was going to have a concert over the theater. And their music was very similar to the Southern music. And the crowds were watching them and they were screaming and jumping up and down. And I'm not saying it's wrong to do that at a concert. But there's a risk that the music itself can generate these emotions that are more of a personal experience rather than experiencing God that the truth conveyed. There are people who can get emotional singing Amazing Grace, and they love that song, and yet they don't yet know the grace of God. There are people who can love religious music for the sentiment it brings out, and so we need to be careful how we use the emotion of music in terms of the hearers. And then the other danger is a performance mentality where the people up front leading us become performers rather than helping us to worship. And this isn't just in contemporary music. I mean, I'm thinking back 40 years ago, I would go to a church and it would be traditional music. It'd be a soloist singing something you think is very classical or the organist or the pianist. And it is a performance that could even distract from the glory of God. I know someone who, I mentioned last time, he sees the Christian worship bands in some settings and he says, I would love to be in that. He's not even a Christian, but he'd love to be in one of those because it just looks so cool to be up front and doing what they do and the experience they're having. And it's not about the performers. And the congregation becomes an audience And I've mentioned before, the irony of this, that in the Middle Ages, the congregation was the audience watching the people, musicians up on in front, perform. And now you have, in the most contemporary situations, something very similar happening. Where, and I was talking to a friend who had been going to one of these churches, how the musicians were so incredibly talented, and they were so incredibly loud, that you would just kind of sit there and watch them, and you would enjoy it. But in terms of having much of a sense of actually participating in worship and singing yourself, that was minimal. And that too can happen in traditional music as well. So you're kind of experiencing worship vicariously to those who are leading rather than doing it yourself. Music can be manipulative. It's interesting, we sang Just As I Am. And I can remember being in churches where they'd sing 16 verses of Just As They Am, and they'd turn the lights down low, and the music on the organ would kind of warble a little bit. Didn't work now, might have worked then. But we need to be careful with that. And then, as I said, music can become divisive. It can also be a problem within a church. David Chamberlain, who passed away last year, used to say that in a large church, the music department was the department of war. whose solo is gonna be sung, which choir is gonna perform, and how much time do they get compared to how much time the preacher gets. There could be controversy, there can be division. So God has given us this gift of music, we need to use it very carefully. So well then, how should we? What does the Bible say about how we should use music and praise to God in our worship together? And very, very important, nothing is more important than this, the words to be sung, need to be carefully chosen. A good guide would be Philippians chapter 4 verse 8, where Paul says, Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence in anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. So we want music that is excellent and true and biblical in terms of the words themselves, the text of what we sing. Now, there are some people who say, well, the safest thing to do is to sing the Psalms, right? It's Scripture. And there are Reformed congregations where all they ever sing is Psalms. Now, I would point out the fact that usually they have to kind of rewrite the Psalm to make it fit the meter, so it's kind of paraphrased Psalms. But it's attractive. I favor singing Psalms. We actually have Psalms in our song book and our hymn book, and we do sing some Psalms, and these are great words of praise to God. However, There's nothing in the Bible that limits us to that. One reason being, that as you come to the New Testament, they talk about psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. There's a variety to the music the early church was singing. But as well, the New Testament tells us of the Old, that in the Old Testament Christ is partially revealed. You're looking ahead to Him, and they saw dimly. But as we come to the New Testament, there is a new song to be sung. As the Lamb of God has come and He has lived a perfect life, the incarnation, the perfect life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ, the redemption accomplished and applied, and so there's more to sing about in the New Covenant. Furthermore, if the songs, the hymns we sing are words of prayer and praise to God, You think about other ways we express ourselves. You might say it would be safer if all the preacher did was just read Scripture, because once he starts talking about Scripture, he might make a mistake. But the Bible does say we're supposed to preach and expound the Word. Likewise in prayer. We don't just pray Scripture words, though it's a great thing to pray the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms, the prayers of Paul. We pray extemporaneously. And I think in the same way, it's appropriate in our songs to have carefully chosen songs that are reflecting Scriptural truth. We've had people in our congregation over the years compose songs that we sang. Last week, Philip Marshall preached. He hasn't written any songs that I know about, but his wife has. And a couple of them are in our white songbook. Now, this should be done carefully and skillfully. And if you want to become a songwriter, I would encourage you to look at the Psalms as a model. as a grid. We know God likes those. And you have in these Psalms a God-centeredness. You have in these songs of the Old Testament, as I said, the range of human emotion, of joy, of sorrow, of confession, of lamentation, of thankfulness, of praise, of exaltation. You have a variety of depth to them. Some are more complex. Some people complain about repetition. There's at least one psalm where every phrase is repeated again and again and again throughout, and sometimes in a hymn. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Sometimes it's appropriate. I will also point out there's only one psalm that's exactly that way, where the same thing is repeated 21 times. Most of them have a little more variety than that. that the songs should be doctrinally sound. We need to worship God in truth. And I remember when I was in high school, in a youth group, and I was thinking, what were the songs we like to sing? And sometimes when I'm jogging, these songs will kind of get dredged up out of my memory. And I'll realize, you know, there wasn't much to the words of those songs. Actually, the music was fun, but the words weren't that great. We need to be careful that the words are the most important thing, and not the tune only. and to check the theology. Mike Horton says, the average Christian may learn more from hymns than from reading books. Our children are learning, even if they're not yet believers. They're getting a lot of teaching just by singing these hymns, singing these songs, and these truths are being put forth, and likewise into our own heart. The hymns we sing should reflect the whole counsel of God. There's also something else about the music, and that is that the texts should be singable, in that those who are good at this, and those who are musicians, and those who have tried to write songs, you can't just start writing out words and expect it to work. There's a meter. There's actually, in the back of our red hymnal, there's a meter guide where you'll have these numbers 8-8-7-7-6-6-8-8, and that's the number of syllables on each line. And it's not easy to do this. It takes skill to write hymns where the words make sense, there's a flow to the words, and it fits the meter that it goes together. Some songs may have truth, but not a lot of not being very singable. It should be understandable, comprehensible to the congregation. All things should be done in order and That's why we sing in a language we know. Sometimes we may need to make explanations. I raised my Ebenezer. You can ask any of the elders after the service if you want to know. And there should be substance to the texts. Also, even when you're picking texts, some texts, like we didn't sing all 12 verses of Just As I Am today, we sang three plus one. There's some songs you don't want to cut them off, by the way, because they're developing a theme all the way through. The prince of darkness, grim, we tremble not for him, his rage we can endure, for low as doom is sure, one little word shall fell him. Let's not stop there. I want to hear what that word is, and that's in the next verse. our worship leaders are aware of those things. But the music is also important. And this is also where, I mean, does the Bible say something about music itself? Yes, it does. And the Bible doesn't define and say, yes, 17th century music is the best music. Some people might like it the other way around. Let's just sing new stuff. The music, should be appropriate to the text, and I think I can prove to you the Bible teaches that there's an appropriateness to music itself, even apart from the words. In Proverbs 25, verse 20, it says, like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda, is he who sings songs to a troubled heart. And so it's just built into human nature that if someone is grieving and sad, To come sing some happy little ditty to that person is just inappropriate. And there's an appropriateness and an inappropriateness to certain musical forms. Just a few weeks ago in Luke chapter 7, Jesus when speaking of the opposition of the Pharisees to him, he said, we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not weep. You see what our Lord is getting at is it's built into human nature that if you're at a wedding, it's time for happy songs with flutes and dancing. And if you're at a funeral, it's time for a dirge, where there's mourning. And so, even though the Bible doesn't have musical notes in it that say, this fits, this doesn't, it's all within us. I'll go back to music, the scores of movies, right? Those people know what music fits what situation. They're people who get hired to do that. We actually have one of our young men who is going, a couple of people have been in the church in the past who try to do that kind of work. But, you know, if you're at Gone with the Wind and Rhett Butler is Walking Away, and what's the music they're playing? Is this dramatic, emotional music? They're not going to jump into Turkey in the Straw or something at that point. It doesn't fit. You'll also notice if a movie has no music at all. So music does move the emotions, and we don't deny that, but we want to choose music that's conducive to corporate worship and fits the words and is appropriate. And there are also some musical forms that may not be appropriate. Calvin said music should be the handmaiden of the text. It should fit. The melody should be singable. And these are other things to consider. There's some contemporary music I listen to, contemporary Christian music, that's fun to listen to, but it's so syncopated and irregular, it would be very difficult for the congregation to sing it. And so it has to be pretty simple, just like rains. There are professional singers who can go way high and way low, but have you ever been in a congregation where they start on the wrong note? And then you're struggling to get up there, down there. So if you're writing music for congregational singing, you want to work within what fits for them. And then there is a cultural element. And we don't have the tunes from the Psalms. If I can tell you this, I'm pretty sure if you heard them, you wouldn't like them very much based on the culture you've grown up in. We don't have the tunes the early church sang or Jesus sang. They're not recorded anywhere for us. I've gone to other places. I've gone to Korea. I've gone to India, Africa. And to go into Andhra Pradesh, India and say, I know you guys have these musical forms and instruments. We're going to bring an organ and a piano. And we're going to teach how to sing like 18th century Western music. There's nothing in the Bible that says you have to do that. You can take the musical forms of that place, but even there, there are some musical forms that have certain connotations that might be negative or sensual or inappropriate, and others that are more majestic and appropriate for worship. You think, well, probably most of us would not want to sing Gregorian chants. But the next hymn you're going to sing was originally, the music was a Gregorian chant. And some of them work when I survey the Wondrous Cross. The biggest controversy in our day, I'll get to at the end, is fine culture versus folk culture, which John Piper refers to. Quality is hard to define, but we're not relativists. It's not just anything goes. And some things may have associations that just aren't appropriate. I'll give you one little bit silly example, but amazing grace is a very common meter. This is one of the things, actually, I think I did in youth group when I was in high school, where you can sing Amazing Grace to the tune of Gilligan's Island. And the meter works perfectly. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. I'll stop there. But that would not, I'm using as an example here, but I would not want to use it in worship, because that music doesn't fit the words, and its associations don't fit our experience. It would distract us from the meaning of the words, rather than put our focus on the meaning of the words. But that silly example can be multiplied many, many times over. Actually, that's why I appreciate the people who put the hymns together, and the songbooks together, is they're trying to marry tune, and often the tune is by one person, the words are by another, and to make it fit. So what's the job of the worship leader and the accompanists? And I want to say, first of all, I thank God for Mark, for Vern, and the others who lead up here. They are both gifted in music, but even more so, I'm thankful to God that I think they're really getting it right in terms of their role. They work hard, by the way, at what they do. Mark doesn't just show up here at 10 till nine on Sunday morning. I wonder what would be good songs to sing today. He wants to know what the sermon is about at the beginning of the week so we can think, plan, pray, and choose among the hundreds of options we have, songs that would be appropriate. The musicians rehearse on their own during the week, and then they get together here long before anybody else. The first people here in this building on Sunday morning are the musicians who go through all of that, and they're skillful and they're dedicated, but they also understand their purpose is to help us to sing. And that's why we would say, as well-meaning as other settings are, that in some places where they become performers, and they're very loud, and they're calling attention to themselves, and I'm sure many people just have never thought this through, but our understanding is we are the choir. Don Whitney writes, have congregational singing with musical accompaniment, not music with congregational accompaniment. And so they're here not to draw attention to themselves, not to be rock stars. And again, this can happen also in traditional music as well, where you have the organist to just as all the pipes and the whistles and just dazzles you to distraction. Their job is to help us sing. Interestingly, there are some people who don't believe in using musical instruments at all because they say the New Testament doesn't say that we have to. That's a debate for another time. I think it's a freedom, but it's interesting. Those people, you know what they do before they sing? The people who believe in no musical instruments in worship? They pull out a musical instrument, a pitch pipe, to get the first note, to get the congregation started in the right place so that it doesn't go too high or too low. We would really view our singers and instruments, the musicians, as performing the same role. Their job is to keep us in tune, at the right pace, tempo, so that we can, as the choir, the entire congregation, sing praise to God most effectively. Musicians should be skilled. The psalmist says, sing to him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy. In 1 Chronicles it speaks of Chennaniah, chief of the Levites, who was in charge of the singing. He gave instruction in singing because he was skillful. Again, we are glad to have skillful musicians. We also want musicians who are spiritually qualified. There are churches that hire professionals who aren't even Christians because they want to have quality music. We have quality music. But I would settle for, and we elders agree, we would settle for a little bit less quality from a godly musician than someone who is incapable of worshiping God because he's not a believer. Only a believer can worship the Lord. And we also want musicians who have their character, their qualifications, as they can be an example to the flock. And again, one of the great qualities of our musicians is their humble servants who love Christ. And that's more valuable to us even than their musical gifts. Well, what instrument should we use in worship? Well, some people say, well, what's a psaltery? Some of the things in Psalm 150. It's a matter of circumstance to what will best help us to worship. There's debates over this. The piano wasn't even invented until many hundreds of years after Christ, nor the organ, 8th century, I believe. The instruments, again, they're just circumstantial. They should aid us in our singing. They should not overwhelm us. There are some people who very strongly, you know, drums, and I've known people like, oh boy, if they brought in a drum, I'm going somewhere else. I can understand the perspective. If we brought in a drum set here and somebody started playing loudly, it would overwhelm a small room like this. There's some churches where you put them in a cage or something to block out the noise. But what is edifying? What is appropriate? There's not an instrumentation list in the Bible we have to stick to. What about special music? What about a choir? What about having a soloist, or a trio, or a quartet? When Ephesians and Colossians talk about us singing to one another, I think it can be appropriate. We actually one time had someone compose a song, taught it to a few other people, that group sang it at the congregation, the congregation learned to sing it together. We've had other times where we've had a choir, or we've had soloists or trios, we think that's something we're free to do as a circumstance of our singing. But even then, it's not a performance to draw attention to the singers, it's them declaring the Word of God, praising God, we join in them as with them as they sing. Obviously having to handle that with care because it can become something that distracts if it's not used very carefully. Well then, before the conclusion where the most important things will be said, briefly, well what musical style is most appropriate in worship? And This is the area where there's been a lot of division in the last generation. And as I already mentioned, we seek to do something we call blended worship, something we've done very deliberately, where we combine some of the hymns that have stood the test of time with some other songs that have been written in the last generation. And we believe the hymns have great strengths. And actually, the Red Trinity hymnal that we use was put together by some Reformed Presbyterians many years ago. And they went through centuries, thousands of hymns. And they chose those that had the qualities that we've been describing, being singable, biblically sound. And the quality is very high. One advantage in the hymnal is you have thousands of hymns over hundreds of years to choose from when you pick 500 or so as your all-stars. And some people think of a hymnal as kind of monolithic, like, oh, those things are all the same. And read through the hymnal. Read who wrote this, who wrote that, when it was written. There are songs in our hymnal, first of all, that were written thousands of years ago, because we're singing psalms in terms of the words. There are songs that date back many centuries as well. There are hymn texts dating back to the 6th century, the 11th century, texts 12th century, and the variety of nations. It's not just all a bunch of people sitting in England or New England. You have Wales, England, Germany. You have things that were originally in Hebrew and Latin, male and female authors. And one advantage to the hymns is it gives a continuity to the people of God through the ages. And so there are people for, you know, decades who know when I surveyed the Wonders Cross, or Amazing Grace, And it unites us with those who have been singing praise to God even before we were alive. And people from different churches can come together around some of these. Does that mean all hymns are wonderful? No. There are some hymns that, first of all, we all have preferences, but there are hymns that are schmaltzy. There was, in my opinion, an era of hymn writing in the late 1800s that is not that sound. Our hymn book doesn't have, I Come to the Garden Alone. And you may want to sing that to your heart's content at home. A little weak in my opinion. Some people have trouble with it musically. They're not accustomed to that. There's a danger of kind of an elitism or standing to the traditions like all the good music was written in Europe at least 150 years ago. Just like some people kind of like to pray in King James. They kind of want to sing the hymns or sing in King James. It's not required. You're not better or worse if you want to do that. Likewise, with choruses, with more contemporary music, it's good for the people of God to continue to compose new songs of praise. For many people, they're more accessible to many members of the congregation. And I'm really thankful to God for what's been happening the last 15, 20 years. When we started the church 24 years ago, we wanted to sing some more contemporary songs. A lot of the contemporary songs were popular and were coming out of people with a theological background. that was not very strong. And so these were pretty light and sometimes there'd be words in there that we weren't comfortable with so we couldn't use them. There's been a tremendous resurgence of sound song and hymn writing in the last 20 or 30 years with the Gettys, with some of the Sovereign Grace music, And so we're very thankful that there is a much better selection. But even then, you'll notice like our songbook has, I think, less than 200 in the white book. We've got 500 plus in the red book. It'll be interesting to see if the songs we're singing today out of the white book, how many will be here in 50 years? Some of you will be here to know that. Others of us will not. Some of the contemporary music also has its weaknesses, like I say, theologically. Sometimes there's been a tendency to go after more of the emotions, bypassing the intellect. And just like there are syrupy old hymns, there are some syrupy songs where you're not quite sure whether they're singing about Jesus, or a friend, or a lover, or a pet, and it's not very definitive in terms of theological depth. And then it saddens me that some would want only the new things and cut themselves off from a rich, hymn-y heritage that has much truth, and again, has stood the test of time. So what do we do? I already said, we don't have two services. Romans 15.7 says that we should accept one another as Christ has accepted us to the glory of God. What we yearn for in our congregation is some people love hymns. Somebody before the service says, I love that we sing hymns. So do I. And some of you don't get the hymns yet. Well, maybe if you keep paying attention and you study the depth of them, you'll get them more. But be thankful that the hymn people are blessed. And other people, you know, all the way around, and they love the contemporary stuff, and others of you that's not in Egypt, rejoice with them that it's true. It may not be what you're completely accustomed to, but to be glad and to realize these are issues that we should be patient and gracious to each other. I mentioned a few weeks ago when I was in Spain on another issue where I was on a congregation in Barcelona, and there are two languages There's the Spanish language, which is the whole nation of Spain, but the people in that region love Catalan. And they're becoming more nationalistic. And there's a man in the church that I was preaching in last month that's very nationalistic. And so when the music was being sung, if it was Catalan, he's singing out with all of his voice. And if it's in Spanish and not Catalan, he's kind of shaking his head like, no, we shouldn't be doing that. And I thought, well, that's not happening. But I could see some people looking at our hymn board and say, oh, there's three on this side. this one counts here then two on this side and don't think that way rejoice at at the truth we're singing and even if it's not you consider others more important than yourself and I'm thankful I mean maybe some people would be more comfortable in the service that at all of one preference or all of the other I'm thankful we're a blended church with blended worship I'm thankful that young and old And maybe we can learn from each other. We don't believe one specific style of music is more biblical or more godly than the other. And we want to grow in our worship of God. So, conclusion. And this is really so important. That music is a gift from God. And the highest use of this gift is to worship God. But it needs to be used carefully. We want tunes that are appropriate, texts which are biblical, everything is edifying. And our singing is something that really sets us apart. The world is full of music, right? Everywhere you go, there's music. And if there's not music there, people bring their own music, from the Walkman to the CD player, tape player, CD player, phone, whatever. Martin Lloyd-Jones, in some sermons he preached about this, was talking about how the world is always singing, but it's always singing about itself. Or sometimes they sing to each other, mutual admiration. The theme of their singing is always just down here. Our singing is elevated as we, as it says in Ephesians 5, as we being filled with the Spirit, not drunk with wine, we're under the influence of the Spirit, and we're singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with our hearts to the Lord. This is glorious. We have these elevated themes of a Savior who is Come to the world. Now here it is Christmas time and even the people in the world can to some degree appreciate Hark the Herald and these joy to the world, the Lord has come. But they don't get it. We get it. And our hearts should be stirred as Christ is elevated, as the Spirit empowers us. There is an emotional element. Do you delight in these truths we sing? And if you don't, what can you do about it? Well, it says here, you be filled with the Spirit. And one thing Lloyd-Jones said that was really helpful to me is that if you can't bring yourself to with joy and enthusiasm sing praise to God, keep contemplating Christ until you can. We have a Savior. I mean, if Moses and the Israelites could sing with enthusiasm when they were delivered out of Egypt physically, delivered out of physical slavery and bondage, we were dead in sin. We were slaves of sin. Christ has come and has set us free. We should rejoice. Our hearts should be stirred. And if not, we just need to keep thinking about Christ, giving praise to God in the fullness of His Spirit with all of our hearts. Now, if you're not yet in Christ, you can't sing praise to God yet. One funny thing at Christmas is sometimes these pop stars come out with Christmas albums. And these are people, you can tell by their life, really get it, but they like the words and they're kind of stirred emotionally. And maybe some of you feel that way about the Christmas song, you know, Madonna sings Christmas carols or something. I don't know if she's made that album or not, but it's only meaningful when you know the incarnate Savior. And my prayer would be as you hear these songs, and now as we receive the means of grace through the Lord's Supper as well, you could become a worshiper of God as you would turn from your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who says, just as you are, you can come. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, turn to Him, come to Him, receive the salvation He offers indiscriminately. Then you will have reason to sing. Not just something sentimental, not just something emotional, but truth which is transforming to your life and is the joy of your heart. Amen.